Can India rely on Hardik Pandya for 2027 World Cup? Detailing his injury record since 2023
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Hardik Pandya has missed a series of assignments through recurring ankle, back, quadriceps and now shin injuries since the 2023 World Cup.
- He remained fully fit through both the 2024 T20 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy, both of which India won.
- His latest shin injury has left his participation in next month's New Zealand series highly doubtful.
Hardik Pandya's injury remains a big damper for India
Few players occupy as complicated a place in India's white-ball planning as Hardik Pandya right now. He remains, on his day, arguably the most valuable all-rounder in world cricket. A batter capable of finishing games from No. 6 and a bowler who can send down a full quota of overs when fit.
The question dogging India's team management is whether "when fit" has become too rare an occurrence to build a World Cup campaign around. That question has only grown louder this week, with Pandya ruled out of India A's fixtures against Australia A after fresh pain in his right shin.
It is the third distinct injury setback in the space of a few months. Earlier, he had suffered a quadriceps strain that cost him the Afghanistan ODIs and a knee issue that flared up again just before the T20Is against the same opposition.
With the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia now less than 18 months away, India's coaching staff are running out of time to answer a question that has followed Pandya for three years.
MORE: Latest on Hardik Pandya's return and why he's ruled out of AUS A, NZ series
Hardik Pandya's injury timeline since the 2023 World Cup
The current run of setbacks traces back to a single moment in Pune. Bowling against Bangladesh at the 2023 World Cup, Pandya twisted his left ankle attempting to stop a straight drive, an injury serious enough to end his tournament. He later revealed the extent of the damage, describing multiple injections and having blood removed from the joint.
What was initially expected to be a 25-day rehabilitation stretched into three months once he aggravated it by returning too soon. He missed India's ODI tour of Sri Lanka in August 2024 and the England tour in February 2025, both for personal reasons rather than injury.
The physical breakdowns resumed at the 2025 Asia Cup, where a left quadriceps strain during the Super Four stage ruled him out of the final against Pakistan.
It also kept him out of the following series in Australia and at home against South Africa, with Nitish Kumar Reddy handed a maiden ODI cap in Perth as his direct replacement. 2026 has brought little relief.
Pandya missed four Mumbai Indians matches in the IPL through back spasms, a recurring issue dating back to spinal surgery in 2019, before a fresh quadriceps strain during high-intensity CoE training ruled him out of the Afghanistan ODIs in June. A knee problem then resurfaced just before the T20Is against the same opposition.
Meanwhile, scans this month confirmed the latest setback, a stress-related injury to his right shin serious enough to rule him out of India A duty and leave his New Zealand tour in serious doubt.
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Why the fit version of Pandya remains worth the wait
Set against that list is an inconvenient counterpoint for anyone arguing India should simply move on. Pandya stayed fully fit through both the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy, and India won both tournaments without losing a single match in either campaign.
That is not a coincidence selectors can easily wave away. Very few all-rounders in the world can bowl a full four overs at the death and finish an innings from the middle order with the same player, and India's balance in white-ball cricket has repeatedly looked more fragile whenever they have had to replace that specific skill set with two separate specialists instead of one.
Can India actually rely on Hardik Pandya for 2027?
The honest answer is that India cannot plan around him being available, but they would be foolish to plan around his complete absence either. The pattern across three years is unmistakable: minor training-load injuries repeatedly interrupting his rhythm, rather than one catastrophic breakdown that ends his career outright.
That distinction matters enormously for how India should approach the next 18 months. The sensible path is the one India appear to already be taking, however frustrating it looks from the outside. Treat Pandya as a bonus rather than a certainty, build genuine depth behind him in Nitish Kumar Reddy and others capable of covering the same role.
They also need to resist the temptation to rush him back onto the park the moment he clears a fitness test. If he arrives at the World Cup fit, as he did for two previous ICC trophies, he remains worth every risk India has taken to get him there. If he does not, the team simply cannot afford for that to be the plan they built the whole squad around.
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